If you're new to talkhealth or new to a particular health condition, then we hope you find our forums of benefit and support. Our members tell us that talking to others who understand how they feel, and what they are going through, really does help them. We hope it helps you too.

Membership - You can read any of our forums without becoming a member as they are freely available within the public domain. However being a talkhealth member means you can also then participate in any of our forums, including our NHS Choices online clinics, and talk to others. If you've not yet become a member you can register FREE by following this link - http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/my ... /login.php. When registering we would recommend you choose your username carefully as it cannot be changed at a later date - most people choose a name that provides them with a level of anonymity.

How to participate in the forums & online clinics - once you have registered and become a member simply log into your account via the green 'sign up/log in' button on the top right hand corner of any page.

Once you have logged in you will automatically be taken to your own 'mytalkhealth' page. There will be 3 green buttons to choose from 'go to online clinics', 'go to forums' or 'go to freebies'. Navigate to either 'go to online clinics' or 'go to forums' and you can then select the forum you'd like to participate in. Either select 'post a new topic' or navigate to the topic of your choice in order to contribute and simply click 'post a reply'. Once you've made your contribution, you may want to either 'preview' your post and/or 'submit' it.

Once someone replies to your post you will receive an email to let you know.

Forum rules & guidelines - these are pretty standard but please do take a moment to read them. The basic ground rules for discussions on talkhealth forums are: be polite, use common sense, don't break the law and don't post any message that even hint at advertising. We take these rules very seriously. We do not tolerate any rudeness. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be banned without warning. We reserve the right to remove, modify or move posts at our discretion and without explanation. If you choose to ignore these guidelines your account may be suspended. Suspension of your account is a definite consequence of not adhering to these guidelines - http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/le ... _rules.php

Getting to know you - you can personalise your forum profile by adding a signature that automatically appears after each of your posts, and also a picture of yourself, or other image if you prefer (referred to as an avatar) so you can get to know others and they can get to know you. This can be done via the User Control Panel once you are logged in. You may also send private messages to other members. All profiles are automatically set to receive and send private messages within the forums' membership and via your username only. If you do not wish to receive or send private messages within the forum, you can switch this function off via the User Control Panel within Board Preferences.

NHS Choices / talkhealth online clinics

Posting questions in the clinic forum - our clinics are generally open 2 days before the experts join the discussion so you can post pre-clinic questions. Please post your questions in the sub-forum of your choice ready for our panel of experts to answer. If you have a question that requires a new topic, please feel free to create a new heading by selecting the 'new topic' button towards the top left hand corner your screen in the sub-forum of your choice.

Answering questions in the clinic - our experts will answer clinic questions over the course of the week the clinic is open. We would kindly ask that patients do not attempt to answer other patients questions & queries and instead leave them for our expert panel to answer. If you would like to talk with others affected by a particular health condition and share ideas and experiences, then please take part in one of our patient forums - http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/forums/

Medical panel - please note that the experts are only able to answer questions of a medical/health nature, and cannot answer any funding, research or complaints queries which need to be referred to the local GPC (General Practitioners Committee). Questions of this nature posted in our clinics may be removed without warning.

Answers to questions in the online clinics have been independently provided by a qualified healthcare professional, who is an expert in the clinic topic. The healthcare professional, does not endorse any specific brand or product and has no relationship with the brand sponsors. Our specialist health professionals can only give general guidance based on the limited information that can be imparted in a short email and may sometimes get it wrong. Neither the individual professionals nor talkhealth can accept responsibility for information that may turn out to be misleading. For a more in depth assessment, you must go your own medical practitioner.

Adverse Reactions - please note that at any time now or in the future talkhealth may be asked to monitor a specific clinic for AE (Adverse Effects) and PQC (Product Quality Complaints) which means that talkhealth will be required to report the nature of the comment and the details of the person who has made the comment.

If you have any questions about any aspects of using our forums that are not covered either here or within our forum rules & guidelines, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.

We look forward to meeting and talking with you in our forums and our online clinics.